Good morning. It’s Friday, May 3.
- President Biden enlarges national monuments in California.
- Inside Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s unorthodox campaign.
- And USC’s president defends commencement cancellation.
Statewide
1.
President Biden enlarged two national monuments in California on Thursday, encompassing new land that holds both tribal and ecological significance. Under the designations, the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument near Los Angeles will grow by nearly 106 square miles, and the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, straddling the Coast Range west of Sacramento, will add roughly 20 square miles. California lawmakers had pushed legislation to expand the monuments, but it lacked Republican support. That led Biden to bypass Congress with a presidential proclamation. L.A. Times | Washington Post
2.
As of Thursday, the average gas price in California was $5.38 a gallon, up 26 cents from a month prior and 51 cents from the same date in 2023. A gas station on the San Francisco Peninsula made headlines last week for charging $7.09 a gallon. That’s compared to a national average of $3.67. On Wednesday, the head of California’s oil industry watchdog explained what’s going on. “The preliminary analysis shows that the recent price spikes were really profit spikes for industry,” said Tai Milder. An industry spokesman said, in effect, that Milder was uninformed. S.D. Union-Tribune
3.
The Wall Street Journal published an inside account of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s unorthodox White House campaign:
- Charles Eisenstein, the campaign’s director of messaging, spent weeks in Costa Rica “reconnecting with spirit.” While there, he recorded an interview during which he said some of Kennedy’s ideas were “actually repugnant.”
- At a potluck, volunteers were advised to bring crockpots because some staffers fear radiation from microwaves.
- Campaign workers are invited to weekly prayer circles, where a reverend who heads a group that opposes vaccination requirements for children leads a prayer for Kennedy’s “divine protection.”
4.
In the days leading up to the outburst of violence on UCLA’s campus early this week, the university twice sought to borrow police officers from nearby UC campuses — but then quickly canceled the requests. A law enforcement source at UC Riverside said the calls for aid would have been answered. “We’ve all been trying to get up there and go help,” he said. UCLA didn’t respond to a reporter seeking comment. The university’s response to the melee has been roundly condemned and is now the subject of an external review. L.A. Times
- Crews, aided by bulldozers, cleaned up the sprawling mess left behind after police flattened the UCLA encampment. See video of the razed camp. 👉 @KNXBaird
5.
Other campus protest developments:
- Dozens of faculty have joined a call for USC President Carol Folt to step down over the university’s commencement cancellation fiasco. In her first extended remarks since the crisis began, she responded to her critics: “I believe that all along the way, we’ve made the right choice.” L.A. Times
- The largest union of academic workers in the UC system planned a strike authorization vote in response to university crackdowns on Gaza protests. In an announcement, UAW 4811 accused UC management of allowing violence to curtail free speech. The Guardian
Northern California
6.
The Silicon Valley entrepreneurs David Sacks and Elon Musk hosted an exclusive dinner at Sacks’ $23 million home in the Hollywood Hills last month, the newsletter Puck reported, describing those who attended as “members of a burgeoning anti-Biden brain trust.” Among them: Rupert Murdoch, Peter Thiel, Steven Mnuchin, Michael Milken, and Travis Kalanick. The get-together, Puck said, “is the latest evidence of Musk’s growing power beyond Silicon Valley, as he’s evolved from political hobbyist to media owner and conservative icon.” Business Insider | The Independent
7.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman chats with Bay Area author Sylvia Brownrigg about her new memoir, “The Whole Staggering Mystery.” In the book, Brownrigg uncovers the hidden history of her father, Nick, who left the family when she was a baby and lived off the grid in the Mendocino County redwoods. “My dad was very much part of an ongoing way that people in California often use the wilderness to reinvent themselves,” Brownrigg said.
Southern California
8.
The captain of a dive boat that caught fire and sank off Santa Cruz Island in 2019, killing 34 people, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in prison. During an emotional hearing in Los Angeles, family members of victims excoriated Jerry Boylan, 70, who jumped overboard as passengers sleeping in a bunk room were trapped by flames. “This was not an act of God,” a woman who lost three daughters said. “You left my daughters to burn in that hellish fire.” Boylan told the courtroom he has cried every day since the fire. “I am so sorry,” he said. Courthouse News | L.A. Times
9.
The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday upheld Italy’s right to confiscate an ancient Greek statue from Los Angeles’s J. Paul Getty Museum, where the life-sized bronze is a highlight of the collection. “Victorious Youth,” dating from 300 B.C. to 100 B.C., was pulled from the Adriatic Sea in 1964 by Italian fishermen and then exported out of Italy illegally and bought by the Getty. For decades, Rome has sought to repatriate the work, one of the finest original Greek bronzes to have survived from the classical era. The Getty said it was weighing its next move. N.Y. Times | The Guardian
10.
Cameron Gordon, 30, drove to Los Angeles from Texas in 2018 to attend a songwriting convention. He decided to stay, embracing a well-trodden path of strivers with big dreams and little money. To survive, he got creative, the Los Angeles Times reported:
“Gordon’s strange — and quintessentially L.A. — odyssey started when he found he couldn’t afford an apartment and came to realize a home was whatever you can squeeze into. A studio. An accessory dwelling unit. A camper. Gordon bought an ambulance.”
Today I learned
11.
In Berlin, there is a public park called Gardens of the World where visitors can stroll through more than a dozen horticultural traditions, including a Japanese oasis with intricately raked sand, a Chilean garden with Andean southern beeches, and a Balinese jungle setting with tropical plants. Then there’s the Los Angeles “garden”: a replica of a Santa Monica parking lot that includes six fenced palm trees and two parked SUVs. A pair of benches invite visitors to sit and “critically examine this overwhelmingly urban landscape.” The Los Angeles forum on Reddit reacted to a recent post about the exhibit with a mix of good humor and indignation.
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- In a debut ranking, the Michelin Guide recognized 124 hotels nationwide, bestowing them with one, two, or three “keys.” Roughly half are in California. Explore the list of California’s Michelin-rated hotels, including some with rooms advertised for under $300 a night (curated here).
- Prosecutors accused a local official in the San Joaquin Valley of using a secret pipe to steal vast amounts of water in one of the most audacious water heists in California history. Some farmers who benefited think of him as their Robin Hood. L.A. Times
- The photography project “Accidentally Wes Anderson” became a social media sensation by showcasing places that fit the whimsical aesthetic popularized by the film director. After a tour of international cities, an exhibition based on the project is coming to Santa Monica. Santa Monica Art Museum
- See “Accidentally Wes Anderson” photos from California. 👉 Reddit
- A Victorian home with a Tetris-like paint job in a historic San Francisco neighborhood is dividing opinion online. Reporter Amanda Ulrich talked to the artist, who defended his effort to respect the architecture. California Sun
- For some, the smell of California is that of the minty eucalyptus, or the musty redwood. For many Southern Californians, it’s the aroma of salvia leucophylla, better known as purple sage. Lucas Lagola, an arborist, explained what makes it so amazing. TikTok (~3 mins)
Get your California Sun T-shirts, phone cases, hoodies, hats, and totes!
Thanks for reading!
The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
Make a one-time contribution to the California Sun.
Give a subscription as a gift.
Get a California Sun mug, T-shirt, phone case, hat, or hoodie.
Forward this email to a friend.
Click here to stop delivery, and here to update your billing information. To change your email address please email me: mike@californiasun.co. (Note: Unsubscribing here does not cancel payments. To do that click here.)
The California Sun, PO Box 6868, Los Osos, CA 93412
Wake up to must-read news from around the Golden State delivered to your inbox each morning.